Ascendas India Trust to invest Rs 1,200 cr for its first data centre in India

The project is located at Airoli, a growing data centre hub in Navi Mumbai, according to a statement posted on the company’s website.

Ascendas Property Fund Trustee Pte Ltd, the trustee-manager of Ascendas India Trust (a-iTrust), said that “it will invest an estimated Rs 12 billion (Singapore dollar 216.6 million) to develop and operate phase one of its first data centre campus on a prime site in India”.

The 6.6-acre greenfield site will be developed in phases into a fully-fitted data centre campus with a total potential built-up area of up to 5,75,000 square feet and 90 MW of power. The company will target customers such as global technology giants and cloud service providers, as well as large domestic enterprise clients. The acquisition of the site from third-party vendors is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2021, the statement said.

The data centre campus will comprise two buildings. In phase one, the first building, which is scheduled to be ready by the second quarter of 2024, will have a built-up area of about 3,25,000 sq ft.

When it is fully developed, the data centre campus will have an overall capacity to host about 8,500 racks. Sanjeev Dasgupta, CEO of the Trustee-Manager of Ascendas India Trust, said: “Our entry into the data centre sector in India will diversify a-iTrust’s portfolio into an attractive and highly scalable asset class.”